Your independent guide to NYC public schools

Kindergarten applications are due March 2, and any child born in 2007 may enroll in public school kindergarten. That means that some kids will still be only four years old when school starts. That cut-off date differs from many private schools and some city charter schools which expect children to turn five by Sept. 1, before the school year begins. 

In the last two decades, the practice of "redshirting" has become more common. (Redshirting is a term borrowed from sports, where it means holding an athlete back a year to develop more skills). Parents may want to give their children, especially their boys, an extra year of informal education for a leg up when they finally do start kindergarten. Many private school children don't start kindergarten until age six but in public schools, 6-year-olds must go into 1st grade.

On the other hand, a child reading by the age of four may seem ready for the big league. Spots in full-day pre-K are rare, and most New York City parents can't afford the extra year or two of daycare. 

What do you think? Should the age at which New York City kids enter public kindergarten be changed to ensure that all children are five years old before starting school? Take our poll and let us know!

A research study released last week found that teens at new small high schools in New York City are more likely to graduate than their peers at other, larger schools.  Under the Mayor's watch, the Department of Education has shuttered many large schools and continues to push for small schools as a better alternative.

Large high schools offer a variety of courses, AP classes and special programs in addition to an array of after-school activities and sports that many small schools can't support. Small schools offer more individual attention, usually have smaller class sizes, including special advisory classes.

Do the benefits of a small school outweigh the options offered at a large school? What's the ideal high school size? Take our poll and tell us in the comments!

After decades of focusing on Regents exams and graduation rates, in 2011 for the first time the Education Department evaluated each high school on "college readiness" - that is, how many of its graduates were actually prepared to do college work. The score on each school's Progress Report didn't carry any weight this year but the numbers are depressing: fewer than half of the 2011 public high school graduates reported that they planned to enter college in the fall. And only one in four 2011 grads were deemed "college ready" — not in need of remedial college courses after four years of high school. The numbers are even lower for black and Latino students.

The City Council is pressing DOE officials to explain what they are doing to improve college-readiness. In turn, the DOE will hold school's accountable: high schools will be docked points for poor college readiness scores on the 2012 Progress Reports.

High schools already struggle to meet other accountability requirements. Some schools, like It Takes A Village Academy in East Flatbush, have a high Regents pass rate (90% graduate in 4 years) and an abysmal college readiness rate (9%).

Should high schools take more initiative to guide students through test prep, college vists and the application process? Whose responsibility is it to prepare kids for college? Take our poll and share your ideas!

Teachers, women's groups and elected officials will rally Tuesday afternoon (Jan. 10) to demand that the Education Department remove a Bronx principal who made lewd remarks to staff members.

Just in time for Christmas, the Department of Education today released 2011 summer school information.

More than 6,000 3rd-8th graders were unnecessarily required to attend summer school in 2011. State tests, given in May, were not scored until later in the summer so schools had to estimate which students might be held back for poor test scores. This year they over-estimated. In 2010, the DOE had the opposite problem: more than 8,500 3rd-8th graders didn’t find out they were required to take summer school until the end of July, when it was too late to attend.

Of the nearly 28,000 3rd-8th graders who actually needed to attend summer school because they scored a 1 or 2 on state reading or math tests, 67 percent were promoted to the next grade. More than a third did not pass and had to repeat a grade.

Parents are skeptical that parent involvement will improve with the reorganized Division of Family and Community Engagement (FACE), headed by Bronx parent Jesse Mojica. It's the third time that the office has been reorganized since 2007.

At a packed City Council hearing Thursday morning, Schools Chancellor Dennis Walcott and Mojica fielded complaints and suggestions to improve parent involvement from council members, union representatives and parents.

"What will you do to give parents real power?" Brooklyn Council Member Charles Barron asked Walcott and Mojica, getting to the heart of most concerns raised at the hearing.

Walcott said he wants to work with the council more, and echoed points he made in a speech in October, when he promised to improve parent engagement. When asked how much influence parent committees have in DOE decisions, like school closing, Walcott responded, "the Community Education Councils do have a powerful role shaping what takes place in their particular district."

Lynn Sanchez, a representative for Community Education Council 4 in East Harlem, disagreed, saying CEC meetings are one-sided. "It's just space to sit and talk and talk and hear the DOE give fabulous presentations that are meaningless. They present to us and we ask questions that get no response."

Other concerns included recent parent coordinator lay-offs, the planned Parent Academy, and questions about  how the new structure will better support parent coordinators and engage parents.

Walcott left the meeting after council members finished asking questions, but Mojica stayed to listen to parents give their testimony. A parent told us she asked Walcott why he was leaving before parents’ had their turn at the mike. She said Walcott told her: "I have a $24 billion company to run."

We live-tweeted the first two hours of the hearing. Check out the feed on our twitter page @insideschools.

Three West Harlem secondary schools are on the chopping block for poor performance and in danger of being closed. All three schools are, or will soon be, sharing buildings with charter schools belonging to the Success Academy Network. Some in the community think their schools are being sacrificed to allow for the expansion of the well-funded and politically potent Success Academy Network. They say the DOE has not done enough to support the struggling schools.

The DOE is "starving these schools so they have an excuse to shut them down," said Noah Gotbaum, a representative for Community Education Council 3 who attended public hearings about the future of all three schools.

"Millionaires have got to pay!" chanted public school children, parents, and teachers, who gathered for a protest outside of Gov. Andrew  Cuomo's Manhattan office on Tuesday and called for an extension of the so-called millionaire's tax.

Police kept the sidewalks clear for afternoon commuters on Third Avenue near Grand Central Terminal while dozens of protestors took turns at the mic—both real mic and the trademark Occupy Wall Street "human mic"—and aired concerns about budget cuts. Complaints included over-crowding, co-locations, cuts to after-school programs and lack of arts programs.

"The government is more interested in campaign contributions for future elections than for the welfare of New York City kids," said Ben Wides, a father and public school teacher.

"If we're going to put the energy into fundraising, we can put it into protesting, too," said Yong Lapage, whose 10-year-old daughter attends Brooklyn New School. His daughter Simone walked on stilts and carried a sign: "stand tall for education." He said his PTA raised tens of thousands of dollars to offset budget cuts last year.

Cuomo did not make an appearance, but but City Council member Brad Lander of Park Slope and his daughter showed up to support the protestors.

Department of Education Chancellor Dennis Walcott presented a five-point plan to increase parent engagement on Wednesday night, proposing the creation of "parent academies" in every borough, and the introduction of a system to rate schools' parent involvement efforts. High school Progress Reports released earlier this week showed that many graduates are not prepared to do college-level work. Walcott said on Wednesday that schools alone cannot boost college-readiness and the effort must involve students and families as well.

He delivered his agenda to an invitation-only audience of parents, Tweed officials and school staff with Jesse Mojica, the DOE's director of Family and Community Engagement, at his side. The chancellor, the grandparent of a public school student, promised to improve communication between the DOE and parents and presented a new online hub to distribute information to parents: http://schools.nyc.gov/parentsfamilies.